The date was chosen to commemorate the birthday of Jean-Georges Noverre, who was born in 1727, a French dancer and ballet master and a great reformer of dance.

The annually observedWorld Dance Dayshould increase the awareness of the importance of dance among the general public. Its goal is also to persuade governments all over the world to provide a proper place for dance in all systems of education.

Every year a message from a well known dance personality is circulated throughout the world.

the Earth is turninghumans in mass migrationturtles gather in silent preparationthe heart is injured (...)

Lemi Ponifasio, message

"Dance shouldn’t be like watching wrestling – it should have opinions"

Lemi Ponifasio

In 2016, ITI organized the celebration of the34th Anniversary of International Dance Day on April, 29th at Grande Halle La Villette in Paris, honoring one of the most talented dance artists of our time, the talented choreographer Lemi Ponifasio from Samoa and New Zeland. Ponifasio will give a lecture, with MAU, Dance Company of the Shanghai Theatre Academy and Shantala Shivalingappa performing selections from their repertoires.

Lemi Ponifasio is a Samoan choreographer, directeur, designer and artist. In 1995, he founded MAU at Auckland, in New Zealand, company that works with communities and dancers of the worldwilde. En Samoan, MAU means « my destiny ».

Despite being compared to the likes of Pina Bausch and Merce Cunningham, Ponifasio doesn’t really see himself as being a representative of the dance world.

"People think what I’m doing is dance so they call me a choreographer, but I don’t really set out to create dance. I never went to dance school and my approach to dance, theatre or any performance is quite different from that of European theatre, where they depict events and characters. What I’m trying to do is to bring the audience into a moment. Somebody else said it was dance, it wasn’t me.”

Lemi Ponifasio

Ponifasio danced alone for most of his 20s and only worked within a company setting when he turned 30. As he found his own voice, he also found unexpected motivation in an activist’s words that “only dead fish flow with the current”.

touch the cosmosthe source of our divinityilluminatingthe face of the ancestorsso we can see our children

(...)

Lemi Ponifasio, message

Beautiful message don't you think? So inspirational to students and teachers on this day!

Danceis a fun and fresh activity to include into School curricula. School curricula without Arts (Music, Dance, Theater) will have very poor curricula. Students will have an incomplete education.

I often debate on this blog the importance of the importance of Arts- Dance, Music,Theatre,Literature, PoetryPainting - in schooleducation! Having a master on Music, I know how enjoyable is my life with my education on Arts, Music and Literature.

For too long, dance has been 'the Cinderella of the arts world' - never invested in to any great or consistent degree.

World Dance Day is a huge opportunity to raise the level of provision of dance in schools.

Sometimes young people take part in dance through primary school but by the age of 12-13 most have stopped? Because there is no dance curriculum.

Arts are losing the opportunity to include Dance in their activities extra-school curriculum.

Arts at school education! Having a master on Music that completed may academic education on Linguistics and Literature, I know how enjoyable it is my life with my education on Arts.

"In a world of extraordinary complexity, a premium is placed on one's ability to quickly process massive amounts of wildly varying types of information. Musical instruction helps young people develop the brain capacity to process a lot of information and to organize and present it."

There are an enormous group of students well gifted that can't afford early artistic education. Students attending schools in high poverty communities have less access to Arts instruction than their peers in more affluent communities. And the economic crises in Europe, even those who have the chance to study Arts are losing the opportunity to include Arts in their activities extra-school.

School time will be the right place to educate young people on Arts. Pressure to improve test scores in other content areas is another top reason to Arts education.

However it is proved that Arts - music, dance theater - are a wonderful therapy for hyperactive kids that have concentration problems.

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Recent Publications

Souto, G. (2013) Time for Action: New Challenges in Secondary Education. At Conference Proceedings, International Conference The Future of Education, Florence, Italy.

Souto, G. (2013) Visionary Learning for 2030: Secondary Education. In Booklet online "Vision on Open Education 2030 Part 2: School Education", European Commission and The Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS).

TEDxKids Brussels 2011

Gina Souto was guest tweeting from TEDxKids in Brussels on June 1st."48 kids, all of them born in 2000, are going get their hands dirty, soldering, tinkering, hacking and composing. A series of hands-on workshops will introduce the kids to a range of skills and methods.

At the same time 400 adults will be treated to an all day program of leading thinkers, experts and makers."

The twitter address is @TEDxKidsEU and there was a fantastic live stream from the event.